Disclosed are apodizers and methods for redistributing the intensity of a light beam. Particularly, single component apodizers are disclosed. The single component apodizers include a single lens component that is capable of redistributing the intensity of a coherent light beam.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of redistributing the intensity of a collimated beam of light comprising: projecting a collimated beam of light through a single component lens having two aspheric surfaces, wherein the single component lens produces a collimated beam of light with a flat-top intensity distribution.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising projecting the collimated beam of light with a flat-top intensity distribution onto a holographic storage medium.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising projecting the collimated beam of light with a flat-top intensity distribution onto an encoding device.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a laser produces the collimated beam of light.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the single component lens is a single element lens.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least 75% of the intensity the projected light beam is incident upon the single component lens.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein single component lens has an axial thickness divided by a selected beam diameter of less than 20.
8. A single component lens for redistributing the intensity of a collimated beam of light comprising: a first surface that refracts a collimated light beam entering the single component lens; and a second surface that recollimates the refracted light beam, wherein the light beam has a first intensity profile when entering the single component lens and a second intensity profile when exiting the single component lens.
9. The single component lens of claim 8 , further comprising a coupling section that connects the first surface and the second surface.
10. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the collimated light beam entering the single component lens is produced by a laser.
11. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the first surface causes light rays within the collimated light beam entering the single component lens to diverge.
12. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the first surface has a negative radius of curvature.
13. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein at least 75% of the intensity the project light beam is incident upon the single component lens.
14. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the single component lens has an axial thickness measured from a vertex of the first surface to a vertex of the second surface, the light beam has a selected beam diameter, and the axial thickness divided by the selected beam diameter is less than 20.
15. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the first intensity profile is a Gaussian profile.
16. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the second intensity profile is a flat-top intensity profile.
17. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the single component lens has only a single lens element.
18. The single component lens of claim 8 , wherein the first surface and the second surface are aspheric.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
December 20, 2002
November 30, 2004
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